Mingora Shrugs Over Rumors of Fazlullah Capture
MINGORA, Pakistan – The Swat Valley’s beleaguered capital was taking a wait-and-see attitude to the rumors that Maulana Fazlullah, head of the Swat Taliban which had terrorized the picturesque valley for five years, had been captured or killed by security forces this weekend.
The rumors first began appearing on Saturday night, when the NWFP governor, Owais Ghani, […]
Swat Girls Get a Haven in Islamabad
Embedded video from CNN Video
My friend Shiza Shahid has spent this summer working on a retreat for schoolgirls of the Swat Valley after the Taliban prevented them from attending school. CNN has the report on it.
School-age girls are among the victims in the fierce fighting between government soldiers and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley. The […]
Rumor: Fazlullah May Be Dead
This is highly speculative, but various media are reporting that Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah may have been killed in a gunship attack.
Mystery surrounds the fate of a top-level Taliban occupant of a hilltop bunker in village Datta Khra, between the former Taliban stronghold of Kabal and Shamozai, which was completely destroyed in a gunship helicopter attack last Friday […]
Taliban Giving Up? Not Likely.
Hm. This is interesting:
The Taliban on Monday urged civilians to return to the Swat Valley’s main city, promising they would not attack security forces battling for control out of concern for the safety of trapped residents.
The order allegedly comes from Maulana Fazlullah, the Swat Taliban leader, who has ordered his men to stop fighting the Pakistani […]
Pakistan Claims 700 Taliban Dead? Yeah, right.
Color me skeptical, but Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik is claiming Pakistan’s offensive in the NWFP has killed 700 Taliban fighters.
“More than 700 militants have been killed during the last four days. Fifty-two Taliban fighters were killed in Swat in the last 24 hours,” he said. He said the operation would continue till the last Taliban […]
Ebbing Public Support for Offensive
Al Jazeera English is reporting ebbing public support for the Pakistani Army’s offensive against the Taliban in Swat, Buner and Dir. This fits with what happens with you turn an Army into a wrecking crew. Pakistan doesn’t really do population-centric operations.
Fighting intensifies in Pakistan
An interesting report from Al Jazeera English on conditions on the ground in Malakand as of yesterday. The soundbytes from the men of Buner are worrisome: the government and the military have very little support among the people they’re allegedly saving, indicating the army may attain short-term tactical gains, but continue to fail in its […]
Pakistani Army to Taliban: Game on
Welcome news if it’s followed up on:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 7 (UPI) — Pakistani government officials Thursday said they would scrap a peace deal with the Taliban and undertake a more aggressive operation against the militants.
The military announced it would begin a major offensive in the Swat Valley, site of the faltering deal between the Pakistani military and Taliban […]
Taking the Eyes Off the Ball
Posted by Christopher Allbritton on June 16, 2009 at 7:11 am +0000 · 1 Comment
Both Nicholas Schmidle, author of “To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan,” and Andrew Exum (Abu Muqawama, yo) are warning that expanding the Pakistan military operation, currently pushing back the Taliban from the Swat Valley, to Waziristan right now is likely a big mistake.
Schmidle’s concerns are logistical and practical:
… it is unrealistic […]
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